Atiku’s Northern Invasion

Presidential candidate of the PDP, Alhaji Atiku Abubakar appears to be changing the narrative as well as the tide of campaigns in the very heart of the north. His gospel of getting the system to function again seems to be resonating even with the deaf and dumb and this is evident in the turnout he records each time his campaign ship berths in any part of the country, the north particularly.

From Sokoto to Niger to Kwara and Katsina, the home state of President Muhammadu Buhari, the Atiku gospel appears to be sweeping through as he confidently challenges the status quo, tears down what he consistently describes as the lies of the APC government and party, and confidently pushes the message of ‘changing the change’ as well as getting the system working again. That the entire north is currently agog, not for anyone else but Atiku is a mystery.

This has, however, become instructive, because that is the traditional base of the incumbent, Buhari. The assumption had been that Buhari was very popular and grounded in the north, such that no one could challenge or compete with his kind of crowd-support. On the contrary, Atiku is known to be very popular too and across the board, but allegedly without a support base. That theory might have been punctured in the last few days with his current invasion of the north. Anything is possible on February 16.